Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Telltale Games is known for their
episodic interactive movie-esque games like the Walking Dead Season
One, Wolf Among Us, Tales From the Borderlands, and others. Every
mentioned game has been praised for the quality and how great the
storytelling is. That said, many people (myself included) had some
doubts as to how Telltale could possible make a game about Minecraft
given the lack of story and primary focus of being the iconic square
sandbox building game that everyone knows and loves (or hates).
Despite a few issues along the way, I'd say that Telltale Games found
a way to make it work and work well.

You play as Jesse (either boy or girl,
its your choice). Jesse and their friends are trying to win the
building competition for the upcoming EnderCon in order to meet one
of the legendary heroes from the Order of the Stone. As is the song
and dance of video games, things quickly go to hell in a hand basket
as you uncover a conspiracy that quickly spirals out of control and
threatens to destroy the entire world. It is up to you to find the
remaining members from the Order of the Stone and put an end to the
horror that is terrorizing the world.

With Jesse's faithful pig companion by his side, what could possibly go wrong? Answer: Everything

Telltale Games set out to make a story
game that felt like it belonged in Minecraft, and they certainly
succeeded. Just like how Tales From the Borderlands looks and felt
like the Borderlands series, Minecraft Story Mode accomplishes the
same thing. The menus, sounds, and even graphics fit perfectly with
the idea of having a story take place in a Minecraft setting. It
really feels like the events transpiring are occurring in a world
that could actually be built (given enough time) by players in
Minecraft, which is a great touch for the game.

Gameplay is broken up into several
phases, for lack of a better term. More often than not the player
will be watching cutscenes with lots of dialogue, with interaction
being the ability to choose what Jesse will say or do next. Once in
awhile you will have to walk around in an environment to find
something or interact with an object. Then of course there is combat
and quick time events in more fast pace sequences. One thing
Minecraft Story Mode adds to the equation that is really interesting,
and a great touch given the source material, is the ability to craft
certain items that are critical to the plot.

Most Minecraft fanatics will probably know what I am building in this screenshot.

Unfortunately, using Minecraft's
stylized graphics is working against Minecraft Story Mode. While it
works for most any situation from an animation standpoint, it falls
apart when it comes to lip sync and mouth movement for dialogue.
Often the movement of the characters mouth does not match with what
is being said and that is to be expected to some extent given that
it's difficult to make a character in Minecraft style graphics look
like they are actually pronouncing words. This can often be rather
distracting and it mars the experience for the player.

Overall, Minecraft Story Mode is off to
a great start with the first episode. The story may not be as filled
with betrayal and death as other Telltale Games, but it is still
interesting nonetheless. It may not be for everyone, but Minecraft
Story Mode will be a memorably experience for those capable of
approaching it with an open mind.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

It's been almost a month now since
Destiny: The Taken King was released. With the release of this
expansion, Destiny has undergone many changes. Most of the changes
were good, but there were certainly several things that aren't as
good with the beginning of year two for Destiny. We will be going
over some of the strengths and weaknesses of The Taken King, discuss
a few possible ideas for improvement, and briefly talk about what
lies ahead in the future for this series.

First and foremost, the biggest
improvement The Taken King has made is without a doubt how Destiny
actually tells its story. One of the biggest complaints from the
first year was how poorly implemented the story was. Given all the
memorable moments that occurred throughout the first three Halo games
and the two spin offs (AKA ODST and Reach), I was certainly
scratching my head as to why Bungie had somehow taken ten steps back
in presenting a story in their game. The story was always there, but
for some reason they decided to lock it up behind a bunch of grimoire
cards that only a handful of people are going to read given the
declining popularity of reading something longer than a paragraph.

In the first story mission alone, there
is more story and cutscenes explaining what is happening than what
was present last year. There are more characters talking to the
player as they progress, and Bungie uses the levels to help tell
parts of the story as well through scripted events and calling out
things for the player to look at through masterfully crafted
environments. Even the side quests tell much more story than Destiny
has ever been known for, and this is an improvement that I hope
Bungie keeps working on. Destiny has a great story and universe, but
Bungie was never able to properly apply it until now.

The campaign has far more variety than
last year. While there is still some of the old 'scan stuff with
Ghost and fight off hordes of enemies' that was overused in the Year
1 campaign, The Taken King mixes things up with a variety of
interesting new things that happen during missions. From a minor
stealth segment, to running from invincible enemies, the campaign for
The Taken King provides enough entertainment to keep you playing all
the way to the end. Even after the main story is done, there are a
bunch of follow up side quests that are part of the epilogue known as
“The Taken War”.

A boss fight at the Court of Oryx. Just a small tier 1 boss, but a good example of what to expect.

There is even quests and side missions
that have nothing to do with Oryx and his dark armies, including an
expedition into the Vault of Glass to investigate a mysterious
signal. Quests aside, The Taken King also offers players a great
deal of things to do while exploring the Dreadnaught. From summoning
bosses at the Court of Oryx to treasure chests hidden all over the
place, patrol mode offers far more content than it ever has before.
The sheer amount of content available in The Taken King is
impressive, and it makes me wish that the original game had been more
like this. At the very least, Bungie seems to be learning from their
mistakes. So as we go forward in the future, I hope Destiny 2 will
have the same amount of content as The Taken King if not more.

Destiny has received a lot of praise
for the quality of the raid content, and Bungie did not disappoint
with the latest raid known as King's Fall. King's Fall is without a
doubt the most challenging raid in the game so far, and there is
nothing more satisfying in the game than taking down a boss and
finally beating the raid. My only complaint about the raid would be
that jumping puzzles got overused. One or two were fine, but by the
third segment they had outstayed their welcome.

Screenshot from a recent run of King's Fall. We were victorious. ^_^

While Destiny now has a great deal of
strong points, it has gained some strange weak points that weren't
there before. I have a feeling most of these are unintentional and
that it is a result of a lack of foresight on Bungie's part given
their lack of experience making a loot based game like Destiny, but
at least they admit that they are still trying to figure out how to
make Destiny better. The biggest issue that needs to be fixed is how
unrewarding most activities feel. Nightfalls are barely worth doing
anymore as the rewards do not match the challenge, which was also an
issue with the Level 35 version of Prison of Elders during House of
Wolves where the rewards simply had too low a drop rate to make
farming Skolas worth it. Even the Daily Heroic story missions feel
less rewarding now that they no longer reward Engrams. Bungie had
once said that the loot system would provide better rewards,
especially in the raid. Unfortunately this is not the case as there
are a lot of people complaining how all they get during King Fall is
Moldering Shards and nothing else; even from the final boss. In
short, Bungie needs to improve the rewards for all activities and fix
the loot system to be a little more intelligent like they had
promised they would.

Oryx's arrival can be considered a herald of good things to come for Destiny... from a gameplay standpoint.

Next week, an in-game micro transaction
store will be added to Destiny. The store will sell eighteen brand
new emotes that you can equip to your character. While many people
have concerns about this new system, these items are cosmetic only
and will not have any effects on gameplay. Not only that, but rumor
has it that Bungie will not be doing two mini expansions after The
Taken King. If the rumor is true, they will be releasing free
updates and new content every few months until Fall 2016 when Destiny
2 comes out. It is unclear if they will do mini expansions for
Destiny 2, but it is likely that they will do a 2.5 expansion similar
to how The Taken King could be considered to be Destiny 1.5. At this
time there is no mention of whether or not this is Bungie's plan but
the same source did predict the micro transaction store, which proved
to be true. Even that old document leak that described the entire
ten year plan Activision has with Bungie mentioned a micro
transaction store.

I intend to keep you all posted as new
and exciting things happen in Destiny. If the original plan is to be
believed, we have at least eight more years worth of Destiny to come
and I look forward to seeing where the series goes overtime.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Visual novels are a very interesting,
and uncommon, genre of games. They are more popular in Japan, but
lately this genre has been seeing more movement in other parts of the
world. Unfortunately a lot of Japanese visual novels are porn fests
at best, and disturbing fetish stories at worst. So there is
certainly room for visual novels that break out of that mold and
actually try to tell a good and captivating story. This is the case
for Higurashi When They Cry.

Just a story about a peaceful village in Japan, right?

Higurashi When They Cry is a series of
fourteen small psychological horror visual novels. It has been
around for some time now, but only just recently had an official
release in America. At this moment only the first novel is
available, and it is unknown when and if the second one will be
released. The first novel focuses on a young teenage boy named
Keichi Maebara as he and his family move to a small village in Japan
known as Hinamizawa. There, Keichi meets a group of girls (and
quickly befriends them). While at first the story may seem like one
big happy go lucky tale about a group of students going through the
trials and tribulations of life while taking part in a rather intense
game club. However, this all gradually goes to hell in a hand basket
when Keichi begins to uncover a dark secret within the village
itself. From there things only take a turn for the worst as Keichi
tries to unravel the mystery behind a series of death that occur once
a year during the Cotton Drifting Festival.

...right? Well at least it is for the first hour or so, then it becomes a nightmare.

Player interaction varies in visual
novels, and in the case of Higurashi, the only thing the player does
is click or press enter to advance the text. You never make any
choices, and the ending will always be the same. As a result, visual
novels have a very niche market given how little gameplay there is.
Higurashi makes up for this weakness by being well written and
combining that with sound effects and music to help add life to the
story. As a result, there are times when Higurashi is absolutely
terrifying. It doesn't rely on cheap jump scares like most western
horror does, and instead uses the unknown and ordinary to create an
intense and terrifying situation as the story progresses. Unlike
many visual novels that use big CG art scenes to tell parts of the
story, Higurashi relies on text and character portraits alone.

There isn't enough good psychological
horror out there in video games, and I can only hope that someday
there will be more games like Higurashi When They Cry that tell an
interesting story while doing a better job scaring the player than
most western horror could ever hope to accomplish. It may not be for
everyone, but players patient enough to sit through a 5 to 8 hour
visual novel like Higurashi When They Cry will be in for one well
polished and terrifying experience.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Every once in awhile you will find a
game that stands out from everything else. This can be for a variety
of reasons from negative things like ridiculous game breaking bugs
that should never have been in the release build of a game (looking
at you Ubisoft) or any number of controversial issues. In a more positive light, however, a game can leave
an impression on the player that they remember for years to come.
Journey is the latter. Back when it first came out on Playstation 3
in 2012, Journey provided a very unique and memorable experience. In
a way, Journey is the kind of game that could be considered art that
you, the player, experience. Journey was developed by
ThatGameCompany, whom are known for making games like Flow and
Flower, and if you have played those then you know that you are in
for a highly memorable experience.

Journey is a very simple game. You
play as a entity draped in a red cloak and your objective is to reach
a mysterious mountain out in the distance. That is it. As the
saying goes, it's not the destination but the journey that matters.
Between you and the mountain is a vast desert littered with ruins of
some long lost civilization. As you progress, a story unfolds
through visions at the end of each level. There is no dialogue and
you are not told directly what happens. This is one of Journey's
many strengths, the fact that it allows you to piece the story
together yourself and figure out what it all means.

While you start the journey completely
alone, Journey incorporates a very interesting element of multiplayer
into the game where you can encounter a second player while traveling
toward the mountain. You can't see the name of the player and you
can't communicate to them with voice chat either. The only form of
interaction in this game is a music tone that your character makes
when pressing the circle button. It is entirely up to you whether
you choose to travel with this other player or go at your own pace,
but having someone along for the trip makes the haunting world of
Journey a little less lonely.

Journey could be considered a
combination of a walking game (like Dear Esther) and a three
dimensional platformer. Although as far as difficulty goes, Journey
is fairly easy and devoid of challenging gameplay in favor of
presenting an experience. ThatGameCompany knew exactly what kind of
game they wanted Journey to be, and did not put in unnecessary
mechanics at any point. They made it very easy to figure out how to
navigate through the levels with a very simplistic control scheme
that doesn't require a UI.

This is a screenshot of actual gameplay, notice the lack of UI (User Interface).

On the Playstation 3, Journey looked
incredible and it looks even better on the Playstation 4. The
environments have a great amount of detail and the vast sand dunes
look great. Sand moves seemingly dynamically based on your movement
and the sunlight reflecting off of the sand results in some very
beautiful lighting effects throughout the game.

There are only a handful of games that
could be considered artistic experiences that experiment with how
story is told in a video game, but Journey is the prime example of
how video games can tell stories in ways that other forms of
entertainment like books and movies can't. Of course, Journey is the
kind of game that won't appeal to everyone. If you are open minded
to something that is a little out of the ordinary from what you'd
expect from a video game, then I recommend Journey. It may be a
short experience, but it is worth every penny.

Friday, June 12, 2015

I've never really been a particular fan
of MOBA games. League of Legends, the original DotA, DotA 2, none of
them ever really caught my interest. To be honest, I was convinced
that the same would occur with Heroes of the Storm. I though it was
a cool idea for a game, but I felt that it just wasn't the game for
me. Somehow I got lucky enough to get into the beta for Heroes of
the Storm and checked it out for myself. Immediately I could tell it
was a much more simplified MOBA than other games that had come
before, not that this is a bad thing mind you. I played a few games
during the beta, and I had a blast. Now the game is out, and I
anticipate that I'll be spending many an hour in this game.

Heroes of the Storm uses a wide variety
of characters from various Blizzard games. You'll see recognizable
characters like Jim Raynor, Kerrigan, Thrall, Jaina, Diablo, Tyrael,
and many more. While the roster is nowhere near as big as other
games like League of Legends or DotA 2, Blizzard does have plans to
expand this gradually with more heroes over time. In fact, the
Butcher from Diablo 3 will be added into the game at the end of this
month along with a Diablo themed stage known as The Eternal Conflict.

Gameplay in Heroes of the Storm is very
similar to what you'd expect in a MOBA. You and four other players
go down three lanes, destroy enemy defenses, and take out their main
building (known as the core in this game) in order to win. Heroes of
the Storm adds its own twist to the gameplay however. On every
stage, there is some sort of additional objective that you can
pursue. By completing this objective before your opponent does, you
can turn the tide of battle in your favor. Some examples of this
would be a ghostly pirate ship firing at your opponent's base or
summoning a large dragon you can control to tear through minions and
buildings alike. It is this extra objective that makes Heroes of the
Storm stand out among other MOBA games in a way that is unique and
interesting.

Typical of Blizzard games, particularly
the older RTS games like Warcraft III, Blizzard has wasted no
opportunities in adding in some humor into the game. The tutorial is
a silly experience which is enhanced by having a variety of
characters interacting with one another. Even during actual gameplay
characters will interact with one another before and during the
match. Of course, characters will also so a variety of amusing
things when you continually click on them. A lot of the dialogue
includes tongue in cheek humor in which Blizzard makes fun of certain
things in their games or events that have happened. This includes a
line from the would be main character of the doomed Starcraft: Ghost,
making a joke that gets “put on hold indefinitely” or Falstad
referencing the infamous Red Shirt guy from Blizzcon a few years
back.

I personally have been having a blast
with this game, but I know that it is certainly not for everyone.
Fans of LoL, DotA 2, or any other well known MOBA will likely not
lose many players to Heroes of the Storm. A lot of people won't like
the more simplified, non-stalemate style of Heroes of the Storm where
you don't have to worry about buying items and deal with less complex
talent builds. That said, there will doubtlessly be a large
playerbase that is going to make this their MOBA of choice. It may
just be for the prolific cast of characters, but that is one of the
things that makes Heroes of the Storm so interesting.

While Heroes of the Storm is free to
play, it does feel like there is some amount of encouragement to
spend real money at some point. Even if you don't buy heroes and
just use whoever is part of the free roster for that week, there are
boosts, skins, mounts, and other things on the store that you can buy
to enhance your gameplay. This is the good kind of Free to Play where you never feel like you are forced to buy things in order to play the game (basically almost every mobile game in existence).

Overall, Heroes of the Storm may never
hold a candle to bigger MOBA games, but there is room for it to
coexist peacefully and grow into a large game in its own right.

Friday, June 5, 2015

As many of you are well aware, the
latest expansion for Destiny went live a few weeks ago. Raid
controversy aside, House of Wolves added far more content to the game
than The Dark Below did, a lot more. More story missions, more
crucible maps, a new endgame crucible activity, a brand new PVE game
type called Arena, and even a new social space. Compared to the
mediocrity of The Dark Below, House of Wolves blew players away.
I'll discuss all the new additions and give some overall feedback for
everything.

First and foremost, the story was
expanded on through new missions. The House of Wolves have betrayed
the Awoken, and now the Queen of the Awoken is out for revenge. Due
to events in the original campaign mode for Destiny, you owe the
Queen and are summoned to help the Awoken track down the leader of
the House of Wolves, Skolas. Unlike the previous story missions, the
events of House of Wolves are much easier to follow. There is a
cohesive narrative, and characters actually talk to you and each
other as the story unravels. This is a much better experience than
the original campaign where it was just your Ghost spewing out
exposition with the occasional cutscene that adds little to the story
and explains nothing (AKA Not having time to explain why she doesn't
have time to explain). Bungie also kept things fresh by having a few
surprises along the way, including a brief visit to a certain area
featured in Destiny's main PVE Endgame. Overall, the story missions
in House of Wolves are a great leap in the right direction. It may
not be on the same level as a Halo campaign, but it is getting
closer.

Of course, there are new competitive
multiplayer maps to play in the Crucible. Two maps in particular
really stand out, which are a base on Phobos (one of Mars' moons),
and the ruins of a small town in Europe known as Widow's Court.
Widow's Court in particular is very unique because it does not reuse
any art style or themes present in other locations on Earth like
Twilight Gap or anywhere in that overused place known as Old Russia.
The map on Phobos has one of the most incredible skyboxes in a
Destiny Crucible map, second only to one used on Mercury. All
locations are a great addition, and I think Bungie did a great job
designing them.

Some of the items being sold for Trials of Osiris this week.

Continuing with the Crucible, a new
competitive game type was added as well. Of course, I realize that
calling it competitive would be an understatement. This new
activity, The Trials of Osiris, has no matchmaking and is only for
the best of the best in PVP. Loose three times and you are kicked
out of the activity, but you can buy another pass and try again if
you desire. Performing well will earn you cool weapons and armor,
and potentially a visit to an exclusive social area on Mercury known
as The Lighthouse. This activity is not for everyone, not by a long
shot. That said, it is a great addition to the game that gives high
competitive players a reason to keep coming back to Destiny on a
weekly basis.

Before discussing the Arena, it would
be best to talk about the new social hub called the Reef. This
location was featured only in cutscenes in the original game, so
being able to go there is a great addition. At the Reef, you
encounter various NPCs that offer bounties and gear for all House of
Wolves related content. I'm glad that Bungie chose to open this area
up, rather than taking the easy way out by throwing in another NPC at
the Tower.

The skybox for the Reef social area, Vestian Outpost.

The new PVE activity known as the Arena
(AKA The Prison of Elders) is located at the Reef as well. In Prison
of Elders you must prove yourself to the Awoken by fighting off
increasingly difficult waves of enemies. Then at the final round you
will fight a boss and it's annoyingly strong minions. By completing
all rounds you unlock a beautiful treasure trove, which is where all
your rewards are located. In addition to the basic matchmaking
version of Prison of Elders, there are three challenge modes that are
available per week, with two of them constantly changing between 6
different challenges. These don't have matchmaking, just like the
raids; so you will need to bring two friends along with you if you
want to have an easier time overcoming the challenge levels of Prison
of Elders.

There is a special key you can obtain
through completing Prison of Elders and various House of Wolves
related bounties that allows you to open a large chest at the end of
Prison of Elders. This is where you can obtain some relatively nice
rewards but unfortunately a lot of the gear and weapons you will find
are pretty terrible compared to what you can get through Trials of
Osiris. Until a recent patch, these Treasure Keys were far too rare
making Prison of Elders seem rather pointless. At the very least you
are guaranteed an exotic weapon when you open the large treasure
chest with a key for the very first time.

Want to upgrade your gear? All you need is some Etheric Light... if you can get any.

Overall, I really have been enjoying
all the new content from House of Wolves. It wasn't perfect, but a
recent patch has fixed several issues. That said, House of Wolves
does have a few issues still. Unless you can get a group for the
Prison of Elders challenge modes, getting Etheric Light to upgrade
your armor and weapons can be difficult. They drop from Nightfalls,
but that is entirely controlled through RNG unfortunately. However
getting to Rank 3 and 5 in Iron Banner allows you to purchase 2
Etheric Lights, which can help you gradually catch up and reach Level
34. My only complaint is how it feels like PVE players have to dive
through a bunch of hoops to get good gear, while PVP players just
have to find (or get carried by) a good group for Trials of Osiris.
Not only that, but a lot of vendor and Queen's Wrath weapons are
completely useless. Even the guns you get from Prison of Elders
don't seem as good as the ones from Trials of Osiris.

That said, Destiny is in a much better
place than it was at launch and it is good to see that Bungie is
constantly improving the game. But stay tuned, because it sounds
like a lot more content is on the way. Rumor has it that the big
code named “Comet” DLC is about to be announced at E3 this year.
This new DLC is being labeled by many as Destiny 1.5 with all the new
content it will be adding to the game. There is a lot for Destiny
fans to be excited for as Year 1 of Destiny's 10 year plan comes to a
close. Stay tuned for more information about all future content in
Destiny.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Final Fantasy XV, formerly known as
Final Fantasy Versus XIII, has been in development hell for a very
long time. Entire series of games have come and gone in the time
that this one game has been in development. Now at long last,
players can finally get their hands on a demo of the game (provided
they buy Final Fantasy Type-0 HD of course). While it is clearly a
promotional tool to make the game a day one purchase for gamers, I
imagine that the second purpose of this demo is to show people at
long last what Square Enix has been working on for the fifteenth
installation in the series. In a way, having a demo out for the game
brings us one step closer to a day when the full game will be
released.

In short, Final Fantasy XV: Episode
Duscae is an incredible experience. The demo alone offers more
content than most games released these days. While it will take
roughly three to four hours to beat the demo, there is lots to do in
the demo afterward including a fight against a large behemoth by the
name of Deadeye.

Apparently the demo takes place early
on in the game, likely sometime after the intro and any tutorials
that proceed it. Noctis and his three friends are stranded in the
region known as Duscae when their car breaks down. The goal in the
demo is to raise 24,000 Gil so thatCidney can repair the car. The
player accomplishes this by selling items and completed various side
jobs. You can get all the money you need by killing Deadeye, but
this will require the player to be fairly high level to have any hope
of success.

That's not a skybox. That is, for the most part, all terrain that you can explore.

Gameplay is very similar to Kingdom
Hearts and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. The player controls
Noctis during combat and is able to freely move around and choose
targets to attack. Targeting enemies and landing hits can be a
little difficult at times, but I imagine this system will receive a
great deal of adjustments prior to release. Combat occurs right on
the spot rather than being transported to some random battlefield
like in older RPGs.

In the demo, the player is given the
entirety of the Duscae region to run around in and explore. This is
the first true open world Final Fantasy, and this change is a welcome
one. If you see something in the distance, you are able to go there
in most cases. This small portion of the world begs to be explored,
leaving all kinds of neat things for the player to discover. There
is even enemies that will dynamically spawn from drop ships that look
like they belong in some kind of science fiction movie.

As you explore, you find resting areas where you can camp for the night and save your game. By using these places, your characters will cook up a meal using ingredients in your inventory and then rest up. The food provides various buffs like boosted EXP and negative status effect immunity for the next day, which can help give the player an edge against more difficult opponents.

Bet you can't guess what they're looking at.

While it is clearly still in
development, Final Fantasy XV is a gorgeous game. The environments
are beautiful, characters have a lot of detail on them, and it all
feels like a realistic world rather than some area that exists solely
for gameplay. If there has ever been a game that made use of the
power of the current generation consoles, it would be Final Fantasy
XV. Character animations are highly life-like, and they will even adjust their movements based on terrain. There are all kinds of nice little details added to the world, like cars driving along roads that will move around you if you are in the way. It is this kind of attention to detail that really brings the game to life in a way that is only possible on the current generation. That said, there are some minor frame rate issues and other bugs
that can occur. But with how polished this demo is, I can't even
begin to imagine what the retail release will be like.

If you are a fan of Final Fantasy or
RPGs, you owe it to yourself to check out Episode Duscae. Even if
you don't really care for Type-0 HD, the demo alone makes it a worthy
purchase. It is unknown when Final Fantasy XV will come out, but I
imagine it will be sometime before the end of this year or early next
year. Final Fantasy XV will be available on PS4 and Xbox One only.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Earlier today, Blizzard announced a new
feature that will be coming to World of Warcraft soon. The new
feature is the ability to purchase game time tokens and sell them on
the Auction House. You can find more details about this upcoming
addition to WoW on the official website, but here are the basic
details.

You will be able to buy a token and
sell it on the auction house immediately. Unlike other items where
you set the price, the price for the token will be fixed and based on
region. At this time it is unknown how much the token will cost in
either real world money or gold. All that is known is that the gold
cost for tokens will adjust dynamically based on supply and demand.
I imagine Blizzard did this not only because of the ever changing
value of real world currency, but in order to prevent the sheer
amount of undercutting that goes on in the Auction House due to many
a player lacking even the most basic concept of economics.

Take a look at the Swift Lovebird mount being sold. This is an example of undercutting in the auction house.

For players that have reached the gold
cap (which is 999k gold at present), this would be a great feature
that would allow them to maintain a WoW subscription without having
to pay a single cent provided they can buy a token every thirty days,
which is the amount of time each token is worth. The current release
date for this feature has yet to be determined.

As far as my opinion goes, I think the
idea is interesting. It is a feature that theoretically serves two
purposes, and can allow players to get gold quick in-game without
relying on shady websites and services that usually end up stealing
their customers account information anyway. As I said earlier, those
who have a seemingly infinite amount of gold will be able to maintain
their subscription through their efforts in-game alone. Not only
that, but those who have some money to spend in real life and are
hurting for some gold in-game will be able to purchase a few tokens
to sell to those who have excessive amounts of gold. Although, just
because the idea has potential, it doesn't mean it will actually work
or be used by the player base. Not only that, but this idea will
require a great deal of care and observation on Blizzard's part.

(Image from WoW official site) This could be an interesting new feature, or a new headache for Blizzard and players.

For example, there will likely be a lot
of balancing and guess work involved with determining prices. How
will Blizzard decide what gold as a currency is worth when compared
to real world money? Will it differ when compared to the euro or the
pound? It is unclear at this point, but it is something that I
intend to keep an eye on. At the very least, it can't be any worse
than the disaster that was the Diablo 3 auction house.

Stay tuned, as more information on this
is released I will keep you all posted!

Monday, February 23, 2015

First announced several years ago at
E3, The Order 1886 has finally been released on the PS4. Without
question, The Order 1886 is a beautiful looking game. In addition to
its superb graphics, The Order 1886 has a great concept for both a
story and world. Unfortunately, the experience is marred by a poorly
executed story and lackluster game play.

You play as Galahad, a knight that is
part of an Order that can trace its origins back to the days of King
Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The mission of this Order
is apparently to protect England from domestic threats, with said
threats being lycans (AKA Werewolves) and ordinary human rebels. The
story is there but it is not told properly and there are too many
missing details. The player is thrown into what appears to be a war
that has been going on for ages, but you are never told much about
it. Even the origin of the lycans and why the Order is fighting them
is never explained. The Order 1886 also completely misses the point
of collectible items. They are supposed to help fill in gaps of the
story or add small details that would be missed otherwise. Yet most
of the collectibles have little to do with the story and are just
there for the sake of giving the player something to do in the
environment other than go from point A to point B.

It has been said many times, but The
Order 1886 is a short game. It doesn't take all that long to beat
even if you do stop and examine some items from time to time. But
even at the end it doesn't feel like the story got resolved at all,
it just ends. In general the pacing of the game is a mess and sudden
plot points are brought forth with little to no explanation.

He sure does look familiar...

Gameplay in the Order 1886 consists of
mostly walking around the environment, occasionally shooting some
people or (rarely) lycans that get in your way. The rest of the time
is spent watching cut scenes and responding to quick time events
(QTE). While the quick time events are well designed and are not
cheap shot unavoidable first time through deaths (like in Uncharted
or that unholy abomination Clive Barker's Jericho), there are simply
too many of them. Press Triangle to confirm you've looked at an
object. Press Square to do some random action. Press X a bunch of
times because Simon says. Because of the never ending onslaught of
QTEs, walking away from the console while a cut scene is playing is
inadvisable.

The Order 1886 provides the player with
a lot of guns, but there are only a handful of times throughout the
entire game where you get to use them. At this point gameplay
devolves to generic third person cover based shooting where you just
wait and pop enemies in the head when they start shooting. Fighting
a lycan is different and much more interesting than fighting a bunch
of humans, but unfortunately lycans are surprisingly rare even though
they had been a big selling point in all the promotional stuff for
this game.

Beautiful London Skybox

As I mentioned earlier, The Order 1886
looks and sounds great. Although there isn't much you can interact
with in the environments, they are highly detailed and everything
feels life like from the streets of London to how the characters move
around and interact with one another. The graphics and lighting
lead to The Order looking and feeling like the rich cinematic
experience that Ready at Dawn had hoped to deliver. This is also
complemented by a great soundtrack courtesy of Jason Graves, whom is
known for composing the soundtracks for other games like the Dead
Space series.

Overall, I'd say The Order 1886 is a
decent game. It isn't bad, but it isn't good either. There is a lot
of potential for the start of a great series. So if Ready at Dawn
decides to make a sequel, I hope that they have learned from their
mistakes. In the mean time, The Order 1886 provides an okay
exclusive experience for the PS4. If you choose to buy it, make
sure to not have unrealistic expectations for this game because it
will disappoint you.

RBFB RATING:

DG – Decent Game (Approx. 75 in standard rating score)

Note: I've decided to switch to my own
rating system rather than using numbers or grades. It is all
arbitrary anyway given that reviews are nothing more than a (usually)
well written out opinion of a game.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Readers of Rated B For Blog will be
well aware of the SWTOR project I did near the end of last year. I
had planned on having this conclusion article posted sometime in
December, but then I got busy with some other projects. So without
further delay, here is the conclusion to my return to SWTOR.

The return to SWTOR was both
interesting and nostalgic. It had been so long since I had last
played the game that there was a bit of a relearning curve. From
getting the UI customized to relearning the basics of combat and
where everything is located. However, once I was over that curve,
things started to fall right into place almost like I had never left
the game. Of course, this process will apply to any MMO if you try
to pick up where you left off awhile ago.

While SWTOR is pretty similar to most
hot key MMORPGS like World of Warcraft and Rift, it differs in one
particular way aside from being based on a popular movie series.
Unlike WoW, SWTOR gameplay tends to be significantly more
unforgiving. Fighting two enemies while leveling can be potentially
tough, and trying to fight three or more becomes a very difficult
task. This could be that SWTOR is tuned to be a more difficult game.

One thing I've learned is that while
SWTOR can be fun, the universe and game play aren't enough to keep me
interested to keep playing. That unfortunately hasn't changed since
I stopped playing the game back in early 2012. Yet somehow SWTOR
continues to maintain a player base, so clearly there is a niche
market for this kind of game. I suppose that might have something to
do with the fact that Star Wars Galaxies closed its doors sometime
ago and those players had nowhere to go to scratch that Star Wars
video game itch. I'd be interested in seeing how much money Bioware
and EA earn from the Cartel Market, but I imagine they keep those
numbers classified for business reasons. Regardless of profits,
there appear to be quite a few players on planets and at the space
station head quarters for the Empire and the Republic.

Needless to say, I don't regret giving
SWTOR a second try. It was a change of pace from my usual choice of
games. Not only that, but it was fun to keep a journal about my
activities in the game as I progressed. I've decided that I will do
the same thing with No Man's Sky when that comes out. It sounds like
it will be quite a journey to go from the edge of that galaxy all the
way to the center.